人物介绍--乔治华盛顿(英文)

/georgewashington/collection/other_1790jan8.html

George Washington

On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote to James Madison, "it is devoutly（虔诚地）wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles."

Born in 1732 into a Virginia planter family, he learned the morals, manners, and body of knowledge requisite（必备的）for an 18th century Virginia gentleman.

He pursued two intertwined（互相交织的）interests: military arts and western expansion. At 16 he helped survey Shenandoah（南多尼河，美国弗吉尼亚州河流）lands for Thomas, Lord Fairfax. Commissioned（受任命的）a lieutenant colonel（陆军中校）in 1754, he fought the first skirmishes （小规模战斗）of what grew into the French and Indian War.（法国印第安人战争（1754-1760），在北美大陆进行的法英战争，以法国失败而告终，英国获得法属北美殖民地）The next year, as an aide（助手，副官）to Gen. Edward Braddock, he

escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him.

From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon（芒特弗农，地名）and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.（下议院，殖民地时期弗吉尼亚及马

里的民选政府）Married to a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, he devoted himself to a busy and happy life. But like his fellow planters, Washington felt himself exploited（剥削）by British merchants and hampered（受阻碍

的）by British regulations. As the quarrel with the mother country

grew acute, he moderately but firmly voiced his resistance to the restrictions.

When the Second Continental Congress（大陆会议）assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon（着手，开始）a war

that was to last six grueling（累垮人

的，折磨人的）years.

He realized early that the best strategy was to harass（反复袭击）the British. He reported to Congress,

"we should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque（伤风败俗的，指英国人），unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn." Ensuing（接着发生的）

battles saw him fall back（后退）slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis（将军名）at

Yorktown.（约克城，地名）Washington longed to retire to his fields at Mount Vernon. But he soon realized that the Nation under its Articles of Confederation（十三州邦联宪法，美国第一部宪法）was not functioning well, so he became a